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Egghead was a villain created for the 1960s Batman television series. He was portrayed by Vincent Price. The character was identifiable by his pale bald head and white and yellow suit. He believed himself to be "the world's smartest criminal," and his crimes would usually have an egg-motif to them as well as including egg puns in his speech where appropriate such as "egg-zactly" and "egg-cellent." Additionally, he would use a wide assortment of egg-shaped weapons, such as laughing gas eggs and tear gas eggs (laid by chickens on a diet of onions).

Contents

History

The master criminal known as Egghead is one of the smartest men in the world, a genius by anyone's standards. With his great genius comes a great ego. He is forever talking about his own brilliance, and at one time he had his female companion Miss Bacon write down every word he said in order to record his brilliance for posterity in a book entitled "How To Be A Better Criminal".
Soon afterward, he met and became romantically involved with Olga, Queen of the Bessarovian Cossacks. They were engaged for some time, but Olga refused to marry him until he could provide her with a suitable dowry, which provided him with a reason for returning to crime.

Not much else is known about Egghead besides a few personality tidbits. He never pays for anything and he eats nothing but grade triple A white eggs. Also, He finds telephones irresistible and often makes his hideout in egg based businesses like Ghoti Ouefs- a caviar company.

Egghead was introduced in the second season two-parter, "An Egg Grows in Gotham" and "The Yegg Foes in Gotham," where he schemed with Chief Screaming Chicken of the Mohican Indian tribe to revert control of Gotham City to the Chief's people. In return, Egghead would also govern the city and enable the criminal underground to run amok. Needless to say, their scheme was foiled by Batman and Robin.

Egghead with Olga

Egghead would return twice in the third season with his new partner and love interest, Olga, Queen of the Cossacks, and in exile from Bessarovia (The two third-season appearances were actually filmed as one multi-part story, but split into two separate stories prior to airing). In the first appearance, Egghead disguised himself as a deliveryman in order to capture Commissioner Gordon and load him into Olga's getaway balloon. Egghead and Olga hold Commissioner Gordon for a ransom demand of $0.10 tax on every egg that is eaten in Gotham City. Egghead even appeared at a diner that Chief O'Hara was at to make sure his ransom demands are occurring. Batman and Robin then learn that Egghead and Olga plan to steal the Samovar Of Genghis Khan from the Bessarovian Embassy. Batman and Robin plan a trap by hiding in the Samovar of Genghis Khan only to be gassed by the Cossacks at Olga's hideout upon springing their trap. Commissioner Gordon and Robin are then seen about to be made into borscht by Ambassador Omar Orloff (who was Egghead and Olga's double agent) while Batman is to be made into Olga's husband since Bessarovian queens are entitled to 6 husbands which Egghead is not one of. Batgirl and Alfred Pennyworth managed to find them and free the Caped Crusaders and Barbara Gordon. Egghead uses eggs laid by chickens that only ate onions on the Caped Crusaders which emitted a tear gas that made the Dynamic Trio cry enough for Egghead and Olga to make their escape.

Egghead, Olga, and the Cossacks then raid the Gotham Radium Center and steal 2 pounds of raidum. Then they steal a giant fossilized egg of a Neosaurus from the Gotham City Museum. Egghead plans to use the radium to hatch the Neosaurus egg and unleash it upon Gotham City. When the hideout was found by the Dynamic Trio, Robin and Batgirl are easily captured and forced to watch the Neosaurus egg being hatched. When the Neosaurus (which is actually a recycled version of the Gundemar costume from "The Questing Beast" episode of "Lost in Space") hatches, it ends up advancing towards Egghead and Olga causing them to run out of the building and surrender to the authorities outside. The Neosaurus turns out to be Batman in disguise.

Egghead, Olga, and the Cossacks later escape from prison and raid Gotham City Museum where they steal the Sword of Bulbul and the Egg of Ogg. Then Olga and the Cosscaks steal 500 lbs. of caviar that was to be given to the people of Gotham City by the Czar of Szamarkand with Egghead riding behind them on a burro. While Olga and the Cossacks escape, Egghead arrived on his burro and is caught by a museum guard. Batgirl arrives and manages to convince Egghead to take her to Olga's hideout. Batman and Robin end up following the trail to Olga's hideout. Batman and Robin find that Egghead has lured Batgirl into a trap where she is bound and forced into a saber-dance while Olga's Cossacks try to stab her with their scimitars. Batman and Robin arrive and they free Batgirl. The Dynamic Trio fights with the Cossacks until Egghead throws Batgirl into a vat of caviar. While Batman and Robin get Batgirl out of the caviar vat, Egghead, Olga, and the Cossacks ride off only for them to run into the police.

Egghead was also one of six arch-criminals freed from prison by Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft to form her new invisble gang but this brief cameo appearance was by a stand-in.

Weapons and Equipment

Since he was a genius, Egghead was able to invent some most ingenius little gadgets like an egg that was specially designed to disrupt the high-tech security surrounding the Gotham City Charter.

Stinking Egg Bomb - A bomb that explodes when tossed to the ground, releasing a nauseous gas that will effectively clear a room.

Radar Egg - It becomes activated when placed on the ground. Is sensitive to the slightest vibrations and will explode if disturbed. Oddly, however, the device is only sensitive up to 6 feet.

Tear Gas Egg - It is collected from hens that were fed nothing but onions. Explode on impact and cause anyone inhaling the gas to cry uncontrollably.

Egg of Oil - used by Egghead to free the scimitar to give to Olga, Queen of the Cossacks

Known Associates

Just as Batman and Robin do not go at crime-fighting alone, Egghead needs fellow partners in crime to assist him with his malicious schemes:

Benedict and Foo Yung (portrayed by Gene Dynarski and Ben Welden) - Egghead's "rotten eggs" who were under his employment during his attempt to gain the lease to Gotham City. Benedict resented the presence of Miss Bacon because he felt "dames" didn't belong in crime.

Miss Bacon (portrayed by Gail Hire) - Egghead's Executive Secretary in charge of writing down every word Egghead said. She was forever telling him to slow down when speaking. It was obvious she and Egghead were romantically involved. She had many pet names for him, Eggy being the most often used with affection. With her share of the money they stole from the Gotham Treasury after becoming owners of the city, she hoped to go to Rome and Greece, and get herself one of those guards from the Buckingham Palace, one of those that "doesn't blink when you tickle them". Her plans were cut short when Batman and Robin caught up to Egghead and his companions at Old MacDonald's farm.

Chief Screaming Chicken (portrayed by Edward Everett Horton) - The Chief and the last of the Mochican Indians. It was Screaming Chicken's descendants who leased Gotham City to the Waynes, Tylers and Savages back in colonial times for the price of nine raccoon pelts. As the last member of his people it was his task to take part in the renewal of the lease which takes place every five years. This time, however, Chicken had other plans in mind. Upset that his people had leased Gotham away for such a low price, Chicken was willing to work with Egghead to sabotage the lease ceremony. If the exchange of the pelts didn't take place as outlined in the Gotham City Charter, Gotham City would become the property of the Indians once again. Once that happened, he leased the city to Egghead for a much higher price-- $100 a month and all the eggs he could eat plus the sole rights to the import and export concession for all genuine American Indian blankets made in Japan. Little did he know Egghead was more interested in the $29 million dollars in collected taxes sitting in the Gotham Treasury than running the city. When Screaming Chicken learned of this he began to have second thoughts about the deal he made. Egghead and his men tied Chicken up and left him behind for the Caped Crusaders. He was released by the Dynamic Duo and in time the citizens of Gotham forgave Chicken because he had been led astray by empty fantastical promises made by Egghead. "That poor red-skin," said Batman when he learned the Chief had gone bad. Batman could understand why Chicken could do what he did. At one time in his life, Chicken worked as a bottle washer. He and his boss got into an argument and the boss told him "to go back to his own country". That planted the seed of anger. At the time of all of these events, Chief Screaming Chicken was 60 years old, but everyone agreed he looked very good for his age. Before and after these events, he was the owner of the Screaming Chicken Roadside Teepee.

Olga (portrayed by Anne Baxter) - The Queen of Bessarovian Cossacks. At one time, she was Egghead's fiance, and he clearly adored her. But their shared addiction to the criminal lifestyle led them to prison again and again. The current state of their relationship is not known.

Omar Orloff (portrayed by Alfred Dennis) - A Bessarovian Ambassador who is Egghead and Olga's double agent. He attempted to make borscht with Robin and Commissioner Gordon as part of the ingredients.

Bessarovan Cossacks - They serve as Egghead and Olga's henchmen.

Appearances

Trivia

Egghead was one of only two Batman 1960s series villains to deduce the real identity of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Reasoning that the enormous "egg-spense" involved would point to only one of three Gotham City millionaires who would be of the right age as Batman and deducing that two could not be the Caped Crusader (one has a French accent, which Batman does not have, and the other is a southpaw, whereas Batman is right-handed), the last, Bruce Wayne, must be Batman. Before he can confirm this, Bruce Wayne's ward Dick Grayson shorts out Egghead's "memory egg-straction" machine (The other villain was King Tut who deduced Wayne/Batman twice, firstly by an electronic bug on the Batmobile, but Batman defeated Tut by tricking him with ventriloquism. His second time was by accidentally mining into the Batcave, however a sharp blow on the head made him revert back to his original identity of William Ohama McElroy with no memories of what he had learned).

The Narrator once referred to Egghead as "The World's Greatest Criminal Mind", which would later be the title of a song for Vincent's character Ratigan in Disney's "The Great Mouse Detective".